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Sparkle (1)
There is never a good time to find out you have cancer, but now may prove to be the worst time. With the economy and health care crisis making day to day life more costly for many Americans, a cancer diagnosis can be financially devastating. At the exact time a cancer patient needs to find the strength to fight for their life, they now need to worry just as much about whether or not they can afford treatment. There's just something fundamentally wrong with that.
From Kalamazoo Gazette - Health care bill helps, but medical costs still sickening...
The American Cancer Society has released the results of a recent survey that indicates nearly half of cancer patients under age 65 have had difficulty paying for health care costs such as health insurance premiums, co-pays and prescription drugs in the past two years, and that one-third of those currently in active cancer treatment have put off some type of health care in the past year.
Other findings:
- One in three cancer patients under age 65 struggles to pay for basic necessities — such as food, heat and housing — and other bills in the past two years.
- One in five has used up all or most of savings.
What I find even more despicable is how insured patients are being denied the most cutting edge treatments because their insurance carriers think they are too expensive.
In a classic "what came first the chicken or the egg" scenario...Are the pharmaceutical companies to blame for charging too much money for newer, less invasive, oral chemotherapies? Or are the insurance companies to blame for finding loop-holes in their plans to avoid paying for them? Quite frankly, I don't give a damn. If the doctor believes one treatment will be more successful than another, that's the treatment the patient should get. Period.
When it comes to life and death health-care decisions, the doctor needs to be the one with the final say in a patient's treatment, not insurance companies. Otherwise, cancer survival becomes a deadly discrimination where only the wealthy survive.
How much is your life worth?
From The Washington Post - Gaps in Insurance Policies Make Oral Drugs Too Pricey For Some Cancer Patients...
[A] growing number of patients are being denied access to newer oral chemotherapy drugs or are required to shoulder hefty out-of-pocket costs, sometimes thousands of dollars a month, for cancer pills with annual price tags of more than $75,000. The reason is rooted in a reimbursement system that covers IV chemotherapy as a medical benefit but considers less-invasive oral chemotherapy to be part of a patient's drug plan, which tends to be far less generous. Some plans cap drug benefits at $5,000 annually, which can amount to less than a month's supply of chemotherapy pills. The disparity is likely to affect increasing numbers of cancer patients, because 25 percent of 400 chemotherapy drugs in the development pipeline are oral.
If you are diagnosed with cancer and are concerned about the cost of treatment, the American Cancer Society has some suggestions on how to address your concerns with your doctor.
Here are some ideas for ways to bring up the subject of costs as your treatment plan is developed:
- I am worried about how much cancer treatment is going to cost me. Can we talk about it?
- I know this will be expensive. Where can I get some help to get an idea of the total cost of the treatment we've talked about?
Some related or follow-up questions you may need to ask:
- Will my health insurance pay for this treatment? How much will I have to pay myself?
- If I can't afford to follow this treatment, are there other treatments that cost less?
- Is there any other way I can get help to pay for this treatment?
- Does my health insurance company need to approve any part of the
